ROGERS PARK — The owner of a Devon Avenue Afghan restaurant complained to the Rogers Park police commander that five elements containing precious metals inside his lit sign were stolen.
"That one caught my attention," said neighborhood top cop James Roussell at a monthly public safety meeting with area business owners.
Abdul Qazi, the owner of the Kabul House Express at 2262 W. Devon Ave., said he had noticed his $2,200 sign outside the restaurant wasn't lighting correctly at night a couple months ago.
He said a contractor he hired recently to fix it told him the elements inside the sign had been severed and were missing.
"He said it was very professional," Qazi said of the crime. "Someone cut them and took them."
A metal grate would have had to be removed from the bottom of the sign for someone to have access to the electrical material inside.
Each element would cost about $300 to replace, he said.
Roussell said the area's beat cop would make a police report.
Crime along Devon Avenue had decreased over the past year, he said.
Qazi, who opened the restaurant a year and a half ago, said a police camera mounted to a light pole across the street might have recorded the crime.
He also commended the police for good work and that the street had seemed safer in recent months.
